The Dishonest Odyssey from The Odyssey Once back in Ithaca, Odysseus displays dishonest behavior and does not once tell a person who he really is when he first meets him. Odysseus initially hides his identity, whether by actively lying or passively failing to correct their mistaken beliefs. He first tells Pallas Athena that he is from Crete, that he killed a man there, and that he took a tour with Phoenicians to Ithaca. He tells Eumaios that he grew up in Crete, traveled to Troy for the Trojan War, then returned to Crete and traveled to attack Egypt, where he was captured by the Egyptians. Odysseus (in the role of the beggar) says that he became rich in Egypt, but was taken in by a man who intended to sell him into slavery. He says he escaped and found refuge in Thesprotia. Then, on the way back to Crete, people tried to make him a slave again, he escaped again (although in a different way) and ended up in Ithaca. Apart from the fact that it is the story of a difficult life, it has absolutely no relation to the real story of Odysseus. He tells (or lets them believe) pretty much the same story to everyone he meets in Ithaca before killing the suitors. There are some notable differences that we will address, but after all you have to be consistent in your lies, in enemy held territory. After killing the suitors, he tells Laertes a completely different lie, centering primarily on him (Odysseus as a stranger) having seen Odysseus alive after the Trojan War. Odysseus lies to his enemies for obvious reasons; he doesn't want them to know that Odysseus is back. He begins by lying to his allies and friends for similar reasons. The only people he can allow to know his identity are the ones he has in the middle of the paper who have to fight his emotions so that we can identify with him. In the end, however, he keeps his cool and ultimately prevails, making him a true hero and a good character. , Calypso: Contexts and conventions of the Odyssey, Frankfurt, Athenaeum 1988 Heubeck, Alfred, JB Hainsworth, et al. A commentary on Homer's Odyssey. 3 Vol. Oxford PA4167 .H4813 1988Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Vintage Books, 1989. Rengakos, Antonios. Homertext et die Hellenistichen Dichter. Hermes. Einzelschriften, Heft 64. Stuttgart, F. Steiner, 1993.Tracy, Stephen V., The Story of the Princeton Odyssey UP 1990Van der Valk, Marchinus. Textual criticism of the Odyssey. Leiden: AW Sijthoff, 1949.